All safe after plane makes rush-hour landing on 495

A single-engine plane from Michigan made an emergency landing on Interstate 495 in Boxborough Tuesday afternoon just after 5 p.m.

By Robert Burgess

A single-engine plane from Michigan made an emergency landing on Interstate 495 in Boxborough Tuesday afternoon just after 5 p.m.

The pilot, Allan Kidd, 47, flew the plane from Michigan and said he ran out of fuel on his way to Norwood.

Kidd was flying with Steve Bradshaw, also of Michigan. The two were on their way to a reunion of Vietnam War veterans in Quincy.

Bradshaw said Kidd saved both their lives when he abandoned a plan to land early in Bedford and instead landed on the highway.

“I thought we were going into the woods,” Bradshaw said. “But no one got hurt.”

Kidd was able to land the Cessna, which state police said is a 1949 Sebring 1.0 alpha, in the northbound lane of 495 during rush hour. They avoided cars, and a mother and daughter driving by stopped to help push the plane into the breakdown lane. The right lane and breakdown lane were closed for approximately two hours as state troopers and Boxborough fire and police personnel assisted at the scene.

The two-seater plane was hoisted onto a flatbed truck and driven off the highway to the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Boxborough Woods, where Kidd was making arrangements to transport the plane.

“I was greatly relieved when I went down and saw the plan was intact,” said Geoffrey Neagle, Boxborough fire chief.

The incident remains under investigation by the Federal Aeronautics Administration.